“Losing weight” is counted among the most common New Year’s Resolutions year after year—but WHY? A lot comes down to the numbers; Forbes reports that less than 25% of people who make resolutions stay committed to them by the end of January, and only 8% of people actually accomplish them!
But that’s not all; weight-loss resolutions in particular are made difficult by a number of biological factors! Read on to see 3 big reasons why weight-loss resolutions fail—and find out how YOU can never resolve to lose weight again.
Reason 1: Our Bodies Are Working Against Us
From going into starvation mode to producing plenty of the “hunger hormone” ghrelin, the science is clear—in trying to protect us, our bodies often make it hard to lose weight on a biological level.
“Yo-yo dieting” is very common among people trying to lose weight; it refers to the cycle of dieting, losing weight, stopping the diet, and gaining weight back, repeated again and again. All of this is an extension of our bodies trying to keep us from dying of starvation under the assumption that the weight loss is unintentional.
This phenomenon is especially prevalent in cases where individuals lose weight through extreme, unhealthy, and unsustainable diets and exercise routines. Take, for instance, previous contestants of the popular reality program The Biggest Loser. They allege that the trainers used unhealthy exercise regimens, diet pills, dehydration, and more behind the scenes for more dramatic results for the televised “weigh-ins.”
The long-term results of these contestants showed the extent to which a body will fight weight loss. Scientists already knew that dieting causes our metabolism to slow, but they were surprised to see that the Biggest Loser contestants never recovered as their bodies attempted to regain the weight that they lost—winner Danny Cahill gained 100 pounds back after the show and had to eat 800 calories less per day than an average ma